Sleeeeeeeeeeep! Ahhh, it felt so nice to wake up at a decent hour (9ish) and actually feel rested for the first time in a while. Feelin so fresh! Yayyy! Guess I really needed that mellow day yesterday! :)
Still, currently, laying in bed but about to get up and go check out what Zadar had to offer! Reaaaally wanna see the Sea Organ today!
----
I had quickly dressed, grabbed one of the pears I had purchased at the store last night and headed down the four floors and out along the streets. The waters edge was only a few blocks so I went in that direction. As I landed on the street that runs along the water, I looked to my left - the direction I was going to go to see the Sea Organ, then looked to my right and gasped.
There, under the blue, blue sky and sunshine, from the water back: sat sail boats... cute little Croatian houses.... Lush, deep green trees... And then rows and rows of snow covered mountains!
What the hell, Croatia???! I heard you were beautiful, but this??!! Geeez la weez!!!!
Sooooo incredible!
I love San Diego, so much, don't get me wrong - but to live in a place where you can sit by the ocean and marvel at the snowy mountain peaks beside you? I would love that.
After enjoying the mountains for a few moments, I decided to walk back in the direction of the Sea Organ.
On the rounded edge, ocean side, of the part of Zadar that juts out - is a large round disc in the ground with LEDs and solar panels built into it. Its called the 'Greeting To The Sun'. It's quite large, and lights up when the sun goes down.
I stood there, doing a 360 degree video of where I was standing, ocean water around me, islands across the water, mountains in the background... So beautiful.
I continued and walked a few steps further south and found myself overlooking the world's one and only Sea Organ!
The Sea Organ is a bunch of long stairs lining the waters edge, different sections at different levels. With pipes built into the stairs the waves push air through creating its own tune. It's amazing to see the ocean play music.
When i realised I was so close to it, I rushed over, ripping out my earbuds and stood at the top corner before the stairs and just stood in awe of the waves crashing against the stairs and, like magic, a tune being created.
I moved on to sit on the steps, where I sat for about a half hour or so enjoying the beauty of it all. It was magnificent and magical and so cooooool! Haha I loved it!
When I was ready, I decided to keep walking south along the water till I saw a little market that I browsed through, beside it old ruins and churches and people sitting on patios eating their lunch. I continues walking down the side streets till I felt I had gone a bit far and found a little rounded archway, apartments above, that I made a left into and up a small set of stairs where I ended up finding Five Wells Sqaure! Haha! I always get lost in the right direction and best ways.
Anybody feel like getting lost with me? I'm headed to Rome next! I'm sure we'll stumble upon something famous, while lost! Haha! :)
Five Wells Square, is really, just five old wells in a line in the middle of a square. Surrounding the square is a large castle like wall and a beautiful, in bloom, park. Lush green trees with little yellow and purple flowers, small lizards running across stone pathways and small cobblestone walls around the gardens.
As I walked through the park, I found a small white, round building built into the rock, curious as to what it was I asked the builder sitting outside. He told me it was going to be a nightclub, opening in 8 days! It was so neat! They had a round patio out front of it in a courtyard that overlooked a small part of the harbour and from it, you could also see the mountains! Too bad it wasn't open sooner, I would've love to have checked it out!
I carried on my way, wandering the streets of Zadar. Finally finding a bank machine to take out some Kuna's (their currency in Croatia) and then finding a little stand in a square where a woman was selling pastries. While buying some cherry-filled awesomeness, I asked her to teach me how to say thank you.
"Hafvala" (no clue how to spell it, but that's how it sounds! Lol)
"ha.."
"H's are hard to say, it's like 'HAf-vala, with the throat"
"HAfvala"
"Yes, yes!"
"well, Hafvala!" haha
As I walked around the square, another market with fresh fruits and vegetables were being sold. I decided to pick up a tomato and cucumber for my salad tonight. I couldn't believe how cheap it was! 1 Kuna is equal to $0.17 in the United States. The cucumber cost me 2 Kuna, a tomato for 5. Cucumbers for $0.34 and tomatoes for $0.85??!! Score!!! Load me, lady! Haha! Now that I'm thinking about it, I should've got some strawberries too! Hmm... Maybe I'll go back in a little bit! :)
I bought my veggies and headed back towards the water where I found a little park bench and sat enjoying the sunshine, light breeze and sat with my headphones in listening to such a happy song I hadn't listened to in a while: When You're Smiling by Leftover Cuties. (Papa & Mema: you guys may recall I sent this song to you both while Mema was at Grand River Hospital)
The link to the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZLfQaSoBY8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Such a happy song isn't it? Such a perfect sunshine & park-sitting song! And gosh know, I was smiling! Beautiful place, beautiful day!
I laid down on the bench, biography of Grace Kelly in hand and read a chapter or two before deciding to head back to that little market for some strawberries.
After the market I headed back to my apartment-like hostel to make a salad for lunch before attempting to hunt down this yoga place I found the address of.
The yoga place was supposed to only be about a 15 minute walk, not that big of a deal but when I got to the address, I was staring at a pretty ghetto looking apartment building and no yoga in sight. Fail.
So once again I decided to just head back to the hostel.
On my way back I saw a big sign saying "Excursions!". At first, I sort of ignored it, and then something caught my eye...
---
The whole reason why I wanted to go to Croatia was because of some pictures a girl brought in during a photography class my first quarter of my advertising degree. It looked incredible and I made a mental note about it.
When I first started planning my trip, I had included Rijeka which is up in northern Croatia. After some research, I realised that it was just a transportation hub and nothing interesting would be found there. So I kept researching, thats when I found the ferry to Zadar. Perfect.
While I was doing some Croatian research, I managed to stumble upon a picture of the Krka Waterfalls. It was incredible! I do badly wanted to see it, even though it was an hour from Zadar. I became set on making sure I got to it.
So yesterday when I was hanging out in the hostel, I was researching car rentals and ended up being very much discouraged and disappointed finding out that all the cars were in manual transmission and of the few automatic ones they had, they were already reserved. So I looked for buses, taxis, anything! Finally I had to give up on my goal of seeing the falls.
As I was going through my Pinterest of the other places in Europe I wanted to see, I had forgotten about the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. Hmm... What about these?
But still, after some research, again disappointed.
----
So as I'm walking home, I see the excursion sign, and guess what it had on it?!
A picture of Krka Falls & Plitvice Lakes!
YESSSSSS!!!!!
It was one of the other, and I opted for Plitvice, which has way more to see, and I think is a lot prettier and outstanding than Krka. I got my ticket, reserved my spot for tomorrow and happily walked home on the phone with my mother telling her about my exciting news!
When I got back, I made a small supper and then jumped on the computer for a bit to talk to some friends and do some research. I noticed Coachella suddenly was selling advance tickets for next year... Say whaaaaa???!! I had really wanted to go next year, finally "do" coachella for the first time!
Not a few minutes after I saw it, my friends are messaging me telling me they got their tickets for weekend 1 and I needed to get mine! Ahhhh! Do I do it??! I click on the webpage.
"You are on the standby page"
Hmm... Well I guess I'll just wait and see.
I get a few more texts: have u gotten it yet??! Are u passed the standby page?!
... 45 minutes later, all of a sudden I get through. OMG! I GOT THROUGH!! (people are sitting at their computers waiting and waiting to get through like I just had - some not getting through)
Dahhhhhh! I gotta do it.
I freaked out, ecstatic I had gotten through and broke down and gotta ticket. SO EXCITED!! What a great day this is turning out to be! :)
After it had gotten a little darker, I threw on my scarf, grabbed my keys and camera and walked the couple blocks over to the Greeting to the Sun. It was very dark by this point, you could see all the stars in the sky, it was beautiful.
As I approached the Greeting to the Sun, all the LEDs were lit up and colourful, and flowing to what seemed like the sound the Sea Organ was making right next to it. It was really cool! I sat down on it and took a few pictures and enjoyed the view of the stars for about 15 minutes until a coach bus full of teenagers joined me. They were loud and excited, probably on a school trip, so I decided to head back to the hostel.
I quickly jumped in the shower, setting my alarm for early in the morning and now I'm about to catch some sleep before my big, big day tomorrow!
I have to be at the meeting spot at 7:40am, be gone all day, arriving back to Zadar around 4:30, pack up my stuff and then go hop on the ferry around 8 back to Ancona, then Saturday morning when I arrive in Ancona - train to Rome, then another train to Civitavecchia where I plan on sleeeeeeping until I get on my cruise on Sunday morning! Wahoo! :)
Night!!
No comments:
Post a Comment